If you had told Bilbo Baggins over a year ago, that he would be lost in a dark cave, under a goblin`s nest, in a company full of dwarves and a small child, and now bargaining his life in a game of riddles, he would have laughed and slammed the door. But now, here he is, still alive and questioning his intelligence.
"Well, Baggins first." Gollum waved his hand in anticipation. As Bilbo thought of a riddle, Gollum rested his hands and chin on the edge of a rock.
"Thirty white horses on a red hill." He finally spoke. "First they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still."
As Gollum thought, he kept opening his eyes and mouth as if he knew the answer, then changed his mind. This went on four several seconds, until he finally responded-"Teeth?"
Bilbo`s face slightly fell, unhappy as the answer is correct. Gollum became ecstatic and laughed throatily."Teeth! Yes, my Precious. But we-we-we only have nine." Gollum displayed his mouth, showing that he really did only have nine teeth. Bilbo scrunched his face in discuss as Gollum began reciting his next riddle, while getting closer and closer to Bilbo. The hobbit kept a large rock between the two of them.
"Our turn. Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters." He hissed.
Bilbo looked around the dim cave, searching for any possible answer. "Just a minute." As he walked off thinking, Gollum's hardened face lit up.
"Oh, oh! We knows. We knows! Shut up!" He said to himself.
As Bilbo observed the water, trying his best to block out the noise, he could barely see the water ripple, and feel a slight breeze against his hair.
"Wind." He whispered then grinned and turned to Gollum. "It's wind! Of course it is." The creature snarled in frustration and began slinking around, approaching Bilbo.
"Very clever, Hobbitses, very clever." As he got too close for comfort, Bilbo whipped out his sword and held it in front of Gollum again, but stammered his riddle.
"Ah, ah, ah, ah. A-a box without hinges, key, o-or, or lid; yet golden treasure inside is hid."
Gollum thought hard and long, along with talking to himself and making many hand motions. "A box...and a lid...and then a key..."
"Well?"
"It's nasty. Uh, box, uh..."
"Give up?" Bilbo slightly taunted.
Gollum begged. "Give us a chance, Precious, give us a chance!" In frustration, he began pounding the floor and snarling. He puckered his face up deeply, then suddenly opened his eyes wide as he remembered the answer from his childhood.
"Eggses! Eggses" He cackled loudly. "What crunchy little eggses, yes. Grandmother taught us to suck them, yes."
As Gollum laughed, a bat made a noise in the darkness. Bilbo turned to look for the source of the noise; as he turned back around, the horrid creature was gone! Gollum's voice sounded like an echo from different parts of the cave. He spoke his riddle from some unknown spot.
"Ahh. We have one for you: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, kills laughter."
Instead of cowering in fear like he expected him to, Bilbo smiled and shook his head. "Oh, the clever girl." He whispered to himself, then shouted: "Darkness, it`s darkness!" A sharp hiss was his response.
Clearing his throat after remembering a riddle, he spoke louder. "A-alive without breath, as cold as death. Never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking."
Gollum`s response was also instant. "Fish, fish! Little fishies, precious!" His laugh echoed throughout the cave.
Bilbo sighed, and tried to calm himself before Gollum`s riddle came. "All things it devours, birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stone to meal." This was when Bilbo was beginning to panic, but did an amazing job at hiding it all inside.
"Answer us," Gollum mocked.
Bilbo sauntered around the cave, always turning around. "Give me a moment, please! I gave you a good long while." He attempted to think while at the same time he treaded around with his sword drawn, looking for Gollum. "I don't know this one." He confessed.
"Is it tasty? Is it scrumptious?" The voice sang. "Is it crunchable?!" He asked, appearing behind the hobbit and slightly clenching his throat. At the contact, Bilbo jumped away and pointed his weapon at the creature.
"Let me think! Let me think." He walked further away from him in defeat.
A smile pulled in the corner of Gollum`s mouth. "It's stuck. Bagginses is stuck."
Bilbo paced back and forth next to the water, thinking. Gollum smiled eerily and put up his hands in a shrug. "Time's up." And he shifted, preparing to leap on Bilbo. In a moment of realization, Bilbo looked up. "Time. Ti-the answer is time."
Gollum`s face fell like a child`s and snarled in frustration.
"Actually, it wasn't that hard." Bilbo joked.
Eyes piercing at him, Gollum spoke. "Last question. Last chance."
"Ah, uh..."
"Ask us," Although he was smiling sweetly, Gollum hid a rock behind his back with which to hit Bilbo. "ASK US!" He roared.
Slightly jumping, Bilbo nodded. "Yes, yes, alright." He strolled to the edge of the lake to think, absentmindedly rubbing his pocket; he felt the ring. "What have I got in my pocket?" He mumbled to himself.
The creature`s face molded into anger and disgust. "That's not fair. It's not fair! It's against the rules!" In frustration, Gollum threw the rock he'd been clutching in Bilbo`s direction, and the hobbit scoffed.
"Ask us another one." Gollum whined,
Bilbo shook his head with a slight smile. "No, no, no, no. You said 'Ask me a question.' Well, that is my question. What have I got in my pocket?"
Gollum jumped off his rock and approached Bilbo; the hobbit moved to keep a rock between him and Gollum. "Three guesses, Precious. It must give us three." Gollum hissed, holding up two fingers to quantify three.
"Three guesses. Very well, guess away."
"Handses!" He instantly said.
Bilbo pulled his hand out of his pocket just in time. "Wrong, guess again."
Gollum crouched on the floor, trying to think of the answer. He muttered potential answers to himself and slapped the floor in increasing anger and ferocity as he failed horribly to come up with the right answer. "Fish-bones, goblins' teeth, wet shells, bat's wings ... Knife! Oh, shut up!"
"Wrong again. Last guess."
"String!" Gollum turned around and pointed "Or nothing."
Bilbo couldn't help but smile. "Two guesses at once; wrong both times."
Upon hearing this, the creature fell to the floor, sobbing.
"So, come then, I won the game, you promised to show me the way out." Bilbo said.
Gollum slowly turned around and glared hatefully at Bilbo. "Did we say so, precious? Did we say so? What has it got in its pocketses?"
Bilbo pointed his sword at Gollum. "That's no concern of yours. You lost."
The monster cackled, and turned around. "Lost? Lost? Lost?" Gollum grinned as he slowly approached Bilbo. He reached for something hidden at his side; realizing that the item was not there, his face registered his shock. He searched all over himself to find the object. "Where is it? Where is it? No! Ahh! Where is it? No! No!"
He scuttled around the cave, scattering bones and rocks as he searched in vain. He even splashed through the shallows of the lake; his voice broke as he cried. "Lost! Curses and splashes, my precious is lost!"
While Gollum's back was toward him, Bilbo, realizing what it was that Gollum lost, quickly took the Ring from his pocket and held it in his hand behind his back. "What have you lost?" "Mustn't ask us! Not its business! No! Gollum, Gollum." He gagged. Gollum, leaning over the edge of the lake, sobbed quietly. As he stared into the water, his sobs ceased and his face was enveloped by anger. "What has it got in its nasty little pocketses?"
In fear, Bilbo clutched the Ring behind him more tightly and pointed his sword at Gollum. The creature slowly looked up in shock and anger. "He stole it." It came out as a whisper, but the next one, he roared. "He stole it!" He screamed in anger, and throwing a rock at Bilbo "HE STOLE IT!"
Bilbo deflected the rock with his sword, then sprinted away, with Gollum chasing him.
"Now, since I was rudely critiqued by the tiny child," The Great Goblin smirked devilishly at Liesel, who was biting her tongue not to show any signs of fear. "I think it is only fair for another song!" He shouted, causing a chorus of disgusting cheers from the goblins to erupt.
As the dwarves and young hobbit were being pushed and pulled to the torture machines the goblins created, the King Goblin was signing in a horrible, out of tuned voice. "Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung! You'll be beaten and battered, from racks you'll be hung. You will lie down here and never be found, down in the deep of Goblin-town!"
Before he could continue with the song, a long screech came from one of the goblins who unsheathed Thorin`s sword. The blade, Orcist, was thrown onto the ground, causing many other goblins to look and trample each other in fear! As the Great Goblin saw it, her scattered back to his throne like a coward. "I know that sword! It is the Goblin-Cleaver, the Biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks."
As he spoke, the rest of the goblins begin whipped the dwarves with ropes and leaped upon them, biting and slashing! Two smaller goblins took both of Liesel`s arms, and were playing a cruel game of tug of war as she didn't hesitate to scream at the top of her lungs.
Over her screaming, the Great Goblin shouted "Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all! Cut off his head!" Goblins held Thorin down, and one of them pulled out his knife and prepared to behead Thorin!
Suddenly, there was a massive explosion of bright light. The explosion was so powerful, almost all sound was muted as a shockwave ripped through the area, flinging goblins in the air and destroying the torturing machines! Everyone was knocked onto the floor, including the Great Goblin. When the force of the explosion had passed, most of the lights in the area had been snuffed out; in front of them, a shadow with a tall pointy hat walked up. It was Gandalf, holding his staff and his sword. Light slowly returned to the area as the goblins and the company slowly looked up, recovering from the shock.
"Take up arms. Fight. Fight!" Gandalf yelled to them.
They quickly got up and began fighting the goblins. As goblins ran at Gandalf, he killed them with his sword and staff. The Great Goblin, still lying on the ground, saw Gandalf's sword and pointed at it, crying aloud to his goblins. "He wields the Foe-Hammer, the Beater, bright as daylight!"
Some of the dwarves luckily reached their pile of weapons and began tossing the weapons to each other; once they had something, they would turn around and kill the closets goblin. Oin managed to reclaim his hearing trumpet, although it has been quite flattened. Nori, while fighting, landed on the floor; the Great Goblin ran at him and swung his mace! "Nori!" a dwarf yelled.
Thorin jumped forward and deflected the Great Goblin's blow, causing the fat goblin to stumble backward and fall off the edge of his platform, falling to the depths below! The rest of the dwarves and Gandalf continued to fight.
In a flash, Liesel crawled to her blade that was just out of reach, as a large foot stomped onto her back! She was flat on the ground as the goblin pulled on her hair with all their might; her voice was hoarse, so she couldn't call for help. Instead, thinking quickly, she grabbed a nearby dagger, and stabbed aimlessly at the goblin above her. She rolled away once it screamed in agony; she stood up, and with no falter, stabbed the goblin`s head. The adrenaline traveling through her body made her sprint to her sword, and scoop it up off the ground as she heard Gandalf.
"Follow me. Quick! Run!" Cutting down the goblins around them, the company and Gandalf ran along a pathway leading away from the throne room. The company ran through the passageways of Goblin Town, while hundreds of goblins chased after them.
"Quickly!" "Faster!" "Keep going!" Were many things they shouted to each other.
They charged at the oncoming goblins and swept them away with the long rail. Dropping the rail, Dwalin pulled out his axes and begins knocking aside goblins. The rest of the company do the same. Several goblins snarl as they swung on ropes toward them!
"Cut the ropes!" Thorin yelled. The dwarves cut the ropes holding a raised platform in place; the platform fell outward, entangling the goblins swinging on the ropes!
In the chaos, Liesel managed to just barely see oncoming goblins approaching. She instantly rushed to Kili`s side as he deflected most of the arrows being shot. As she was also repelling the arrow, a nearby ladder caught her eye. "Hey!"
Kili looked to her, and noticed the ladder. They nodded to each other, then grabbed the ladder and dropped it on the oncoming goblins. Seeing their struggle, some of the other dwarves ran forward, pushing the ladder and the goblins it had trapped in front of them. As they approached a missing area of the path, the goblins fell down into the darkness; the ladder, however, acted as a bridge for the company to cross to the rest of the path. As soon as they crossed it, Dwalin broke the ladder, preventing the goblins chasing them from crossing it.
"Quickly!" Gandalf shouted, and they continued running through the maze-like paths; they went on a section of the path suspended by ropes from above. They sliced some ropes, and the pathway swung away from the rest of the path, approaching a different path.
"Jump!" Thorin commanded, and Several of the dwarves manage to jump to the other path; however, before the rest could, the path swung back to where it started, and several goblins leaped on! As the path swung back again, the rest of the dwarves, Liesel, and Gandalf managed to jump to the new path as well; they cut the ropes, causing the swinging path and the goblins on it to fall.
The company ran faster than they would ever on the journey, killing any goblin that came to close in their path. Soon, they approached a bridge between two walls of the cavern. As they tried to cross it, the Great Goblin broke through from underneath and pulled himself up onto the bridge, in front of them! As they pause in fear, hundreds of goblins approach them from all sides.
"You thought you could escape me?" The Great Goblin taunted, and swung his mace twice at Gandalf, causing the old man to stumble back and almost fall.
"What are you going to do now, wizard?" He asked.
To answer, Gandalf leaped forward and knocked the big goblin in the eye with his staff. The Great Goblin dropped his mace and clutched his face in pain. "Ow, ow, ow!" Gandalf stepped forward and sliced the Great Goblin in the belly! He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.
"That'll do it."
With a smile, Gandalf again swung his sword and sliced the Great Goblin's neck, causing him to fall down dead!
The dead weight caused the bridge to start shaking; suddenly, the section of the bridge on which the company was standing on broke away from the rest of the bridge and started sliding down the side of the cavern! The bridge slid at a terrific speed down the cavern's wall, demolishing everything in its way; the company clung on, screaming in terror. The bridge slowed down, and landed at the base of the cavern, breaking apart and burying them in the timber and wood.
Gandalf got up from the pile of wreckage and inspected the rest of the dwarves, who were still stuck in the wreckage.
"Well, that could have been worse!" Bofur cheered.
The heavy corpse of the Great Goblin landed on the wreckage, squishing them further, and they cried out in pain. "You've got to be joking!"
A small whimper from under some of the wreckage caused Fili to dig away the garbage; it revealed to be little Liesel, holding herself in a ball, her eyes pouring down tears.
"Oh, Lise." Fili sighed, and reached out for her.
"It hurts," she slightly cried, shaking like a frightened child. He nodded, and grabbed her under the arms, gently pulling her out of the wreckage. As the rest of the dwarves do the same, Kili looked up; only to see thousands of goblins charging their way.
"Gandalf!" He screams, and pulls himself up.
"There's too many! We can't fight them." Dwalin gasped, helping another dwarf up.
"Only one thing will save us: daylight! Come on! Here, on your feet!" The dwarves got up quickly, helping each other out of the rubble, and they ran away, following Gandalf. There were a few times when Fili and other dwarves had to carry Liesel for a short while, but she persevered.
Bilbo hurried through a cave, fleeing from Gollum, whom he could hear in the distance.
"Give it to us!" The creature screamed to the hobbit.
Gasping, Bilbo turned around and tried to run through a crack in the wall. However, he was stuck partway through! He looked up in fear as Gollum, attracted by the noise, backtracked and saw Bilbo stuck in the crack.
Snarling, Gollum approached the hobbit. "It's ours. It's ours!"
Gollum snarled again; Bilbo exhaled and pushed as hard as he could. He thankfully managed to slip through the crack, with his waistcoat buttons ripping off in the process and they hit Gollum in the face.
On the other side of the crack, Bilbo fell down from his exertions. As he hit the ground, the Ring, which was in his hand, flew into the air. As it descended, Bilbo reached up to grab it; instead of landing in his hand, however, the Ring slid onto his finger, and Bilbo became invisible to the naked eye. Gollum jumped into the area where Bilbo was, growling, and looked around for him. However, since Bilbo was invisible, he didn't see him, and Gollum continued down the cave. "Thief! Baggins!"
Seeing Gollum run away, Bilbo slowly stood up in shock, and followed him.
Gollum jumped into another tunnel, a tunnel with an exit to the side of the mountain. Daylight was visible through the exit. "Wait, my Precious! Wait! Gollum, Gollum." He cried to no one.
Bilbo slowly approached; still unseen with the ring on, and his sword drawn. Hearing a noise, Gollum quickly hid behind a rock. As Bilbo watched Gandalf and the dwarves run by, Liesel being held by Balin, escaping through the exit. Bilbo, seeing his companions, gasped. The company and Gandalf ran down the side of the steep, tree-covered mountain. Gollum again entered the tunnel, looking for Bilbo and the Ring. Bilbo, still invisible, put his sword to Gollum's neck, then pulled back to swing the sword and cut off Gollum's head.
Before he could swing, Gollum turned around, looking down the passageway behind him. He couldn't see Bilbo, but Bilbo could see him. Again, Bilbo placed the tip of his sword at Gollum's throat, but he hesitated upon seeing Gollum's extreme sadness. Bilbo lowered his sword, pitying Gollum and remembering what Gandalf told him and Liesel: "True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one."
Bilbo took a deep breath, and stepped back a few feet. Hearing Bilbo's feet, Gollum frowned and began to growl. Bilbo ran forward and leaped over Gollum, stepping on his head and knocking him over in the process. Still invisible, Bilbo sprinted out the exit. Gollum jumped up and scrabbled around him, trying to grab the invisible Bilbo, roaring all the while.
"Baggins! Thief! Curse it and crush it, we hates it forever!"
Okay, I am SO sorry that I haven't updated in like three months! Also, thank you once again for being so patient and reading this. So, we are getting close to the end of the first movie, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve in the future. I`m also hoping of starting "Back to the Future Part III" and finishing both "Sister Like Me" and "Try Me". But, it is almost impossible to update all of them, while juggling other fanfics on other sites, and high school. I know, not a good excuse, but I think I`ll have a few extra days off near the end of November! Keep being your beautiful selves!